U-turn in car sales

OUR CORRESPONDENT

New Delhi, March 10: Car sales turned around for the first time since September, rising 1.39 per cent in February on the back of the recent round of excise duty cuts and a positive sentiment created by the auto expo.

Domestic car sales increased to 1,60,718 units in February from 1,58,512 units in the year-ago period, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) said

However, the industry body remains cautious on the outlook for the industry.

“It will take some more time to see if the negative trends have reversed. We are getting feedback from companies that footfalls have increased,” Siam director-general Vishnu Mathur said.

However, during the April-February period of this fiscal, car sales declined 4.6 per cent, while the broader passenger vehicle segment witnessed a fall of 5.9 per cent.

“The current fiscal is going to end on a negative for passenger and commercial vehicles. Even if sales are much better in March, it won’t be able to erase the effect of the rest of the fiscal, which has been largely negative,” Mathur said.

The commercial vehicles segment suffered a 29.84 per cent dip to 47,982 units in February from 68,388 a year earlier. According to Siam, the segment is likely to grow only after the country’s GDP recovers to 6 per cent. It registered a de-growth of 19.71 per cent in April-February period.

Motorcycle sales climbed 5.39 per cent to 8,43,307 units last month. Scooter sales rose 28.19 per cent to 3,11,957 units from 2,43,346 units in the same month last year. During April-February, scooter sales rose 21.43 per cent to 32,46,511 units from 26,73,671 units last year.